Jesus again in reply spoke to them in parables, saying, 2 “The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. 3 He dispatched his servants to summon the invited guests to the feast, but they refused to come. 4 A second time he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those invited: “Behold, I have prepared my banquet, my calves and fattened cattle are killed, and everything is ready; come to the feast.”’ 5 Some ignored the invitation and went away, one to his farm, another to his business. 6 The rest laid hold of his servants, mistreated them, and killed them. 7 The king was enraged and sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. 8 Then he said to his servants, ‘The feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy to come. 9 Go out, therefore, into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find.’ 10 The servants went out into the streets and gathered all they found, bad and good alike, and the hall was filled with guests. 11 But when the king came in to meet the guests he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment. 12 He said to him, ‘My friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?’ But he was reduced to silence. 13 Then the king said to his attendants, ‘Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.’ 14 Many are invited, but few are chosen.”
Jesus tells this parable in Jerusalem during the final days before His Passion. It continues His confrontation with religious leaders who have rejected His authority and refused to recognize what God is doing through Him. The parable looks beyond that immediate conflict, however, and speaks to everyone who receives God’s invitation to His kingdom.
Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven to a king giving a wedding feast for his son (v. 2). A great banquet was already an Old Testament image of the salvation God would prepare for His people: “On this mountain the LORD of hosts will provide for all peoples a feast of rich food and choice wines” (Isaiah 25:6). In Jesus’ parable, the king represents God, and the feast prepared for his son points to the joy of sharing in the kingdom inaugurated by Jesus Christ.
The king first sends servants to summon those who had already been invited, but they refuse to come. He sends others and tells them that everything is ready (vv. 3–4). The repeated invitation shows God’s patience. Throughout Israel’s history, God had sent prophets calling His people back to Him. Now the king’s message, ‘everything is ready’ (v. 4), shows that the time for responding has arrived.
Some guests simply ignore the summons and return to their farms and businesses (v. 5). Farming and business are not themselves wrong. Their failure is that ordinary concerns have become more important to them than the king’s invitation. Jesus had already warned that “worldly anxiety and the lure of riches choke the word and it bears no fruit” (Matthew 13:22). God’s call can likewise be neglected when the concerns of daily life leave little room for Him.
Others respond more violently. They seize the king’s servants, mistreat them, and kill them (v. 6). This recalls the rejection and persecution of God’s messengers throughout salvation history and anticipates the rejection faced by those who proclaim Jesus Christ. The destruction of the city in verse 7 also recalls the terrible destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in A.D. 70. Within the parable, it reminds the hearers of the seriousness of rejecting God’s repeated call.
The king then sends his servants into the main roads and tells them to invite whomever they find. They gather “bad and good alike,” until the hall is filled (vv. 9–10). God’s invitation reaches people in very different circumstances. Jesus showed mercy to the woman caught in adultery and called her to leave her sinful life behind: “Go, [and] from now on do not sin any more” (John 8:11). Scripture also tells us of Joseph of Arimathea, “a good and righteous man” who became a disciple of Jesus (Luke 23:50; Matthew 27:57). The point is not to place people permanently into categories of ‘bad’ and ‘good,’ but to show that God’s invitation is extended broadly and calls every person to respond to Him.
But the parable does not end when the hall is filled. The king notices a man without a wedding garment and asks how he entered without one. The man has no answer (vv. 11–12). The wedding garment represents the changed life that should follow acceptance of God’s invitation. St. Paul uses similar imagery when he tells Christians to ‘put on’ compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, and above all love (Colossians 3:12–14). God invites sinners into His kingdom, but He calls them to repentance and a changed life. Jesus began His public ministry with the words, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand’ (Matthew 4:17). Accepting God’s invitation means more than simply identifying oneself as one of His people. Faith is meant to bear fruit in obedience, charity, mercy, and other good works that flow from a life turned toward God.
The king’s inspection of the guests points toward final judgment. The man without the garment is cast into ‘the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth’ (v. 13), language Jesus elsewhere uses for exclusion from the kingdom. The warning applies not only to those who openly reject God’s call, but also to those who respond outwardly without allowing His call to change their hearts and the way they live. Jesus had already warned, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me’ (Matthew 15:8).
Jesus concludes, ‘Many are invited, but few are chosen’ (v. 14). In the biblical way of speaking familiar to Jesus’ hearers, ‘many’ could refer to the great multitude who are called rather than to a precise number. Jesus is therefore not giving a calculation of how many will be saved. The parable itself shows how widely God’s invitation is extended: the king repeatedly sends his servants and finally tells them to invite whomever they can find. Yet receiving the invitation does not by itself guarantee the final outcome. Those who are finally ‘chosen’ are those who, by God’s grace, respond to His invitation with repentance and faith and persevere in a life that bears good fruit.
God invites us into communion with Him through His Son. His invitation is a gift, but it is also a call to conversion. The wedding garment reminds us that the proper response to God’s grace is a life increasingly shaped by faith, repentance, love, and good works.
Lord Jesus, thank You for calling us into Your kingdom. Help us to receive Your invitation with faith, turn away from sin, and live each day in love and obedience to You. Amen.
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Sources and References
- The New American Bible, Revised Edition. Washington, DC: Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, 2011. Matthew 22:1–14 and notes.
- Hahn, Scott, and Curtis Mitch. The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: New Testament. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2010. 46.
- Casciaro, Jose Maria, gen. ed. The Navarre Bible: New Testament, Expanded Edition. Dublin: Four Courts Press; New York: Scepter Publishers, 2008. 122–23.
- Brown, Raymond E., Joseph A. Fitzmyer, and Roland E. Murphy, eds. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1990. 665, para. 130.
- Mitch, Curtis, and Edward Sri. The Gospel of Matthew. Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2010. 281–84.
- Aguilar Chiu, Jose Enrique, et al., eds. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. New York: Paulist Press, 2018. 952–53.
- Collins, John J., Gina Hens-Piazza, Barbara Reid, OP, and Donald Senior, CP, eds. The Jerome Biblical Commentary for the Twenty-First Century. 3rd fully rev. ed. London: T&T Clark, 2022. 1217–18.
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